Knights, bagpipes and epic fights: a day at the Kaltenberg knight tournament

Editor's note: you met Maxi in our Roskilde volunteering interview. This time she reports for TREACLE from a very different field: the world's biggest knight tournament, where she found a live music scene hiding in the Middle Ages.

Have you ever hung upside down from a racing horse while wearing more than 20 kilograms of armor? I haven't either, but I've seen that it's absolutely possible.

Every year, Schloss Kaltenberg, about an hour by train from Munich, hosts the Ritterturnier, a knight tournament billed as the largest event of its kind in the world. It takes place in and around the castle, which dates back to the 13th century.

Growing up in Germany, I had been to knight tournaments before, but never one of this scale. As I approached the grounds, the smell of smoke and the sound of cheerful music filled the air. Hundreds of visitors, many dressed in medieval costumes, wandered along the main street toward the castle, past stands selling real swords (very heavy), wooden swords, jewellery, pottery and leather goods.

Was that rock music?

The programme promises 40 hours of entertainment a day across multiple stages. After examining the daggers and axes on display, I headed toward one of them. Was that rock music? I wasn't entirely sure, because I had never seen these instruments before. They sounded strange and yet oddly familiar. The band, dressed entirely in black with painted-on face tattoos, wooden masks and braided beards, played while a crowd ranging from five-year-olds to eighty-year-olds danced around them.

In front of the stage, people formed circles, moving hand in hand toward each other and apart again. Those in traditional clothing made it feel as though we had slipped straight into the Middle Ages. Then the sky opened and rain poured down. I looked around, but nobody seemed bothered. The band kept playing, and the crowd kept dancing. That is the spirit of Schloss Kaltenberg.

The arena

Later that evening, after watching jesters and acrobats on the smaller stages, it was time for the main tournament, in an arena that seats 10,000 people. The show was incredible: professional stunt performers (one of whom once worked as a stuntman for Heath Ledger), epic historical music, and an astonishing number of highly trained horses.

The festival is a fantastic destination for visitors of any age. And if Munich is too far, you can still get a taste of the atmosphere by listening to Corvus Corax, Kaltenberg regulars who have worked with Hans Zimmer on the film Ironclad and, more recently, on the Dragon Age: The Veilguard soundtrack with Zimmer and Lorne Balfe. Their music will put you in the mood for armor and adventure.

Credits

Words and photos by Maxi (@maxikingxx) for TREACLE.